I’m a summer person but I also love spring! It’s amazing and inspiring to observe how nature wakes up after the winter. This year, I’ve started keeping a video and photo diary of the transformation.
Spring gives its first hints with subtle changes in light and color. You start noticing afternoons are, all of a sudden, longer. Vibrant green starts popping up here and there on the ground and trees. The wind has a new, energetic perfume.
We live close to Vasto Marina and can see the sea across an orange garden. Our big kitchen window feels like a new piece of art every day, with renewed growth and color. That’s the feeling I get also when I climb up to the historic city center: nature delivers a fresh new show every day in March!
I shot this video in the first week of March 2023, on the first warm spring day. These views are an ever-changing natural spectacle.
Soon, these vineyards will look like a green carpet of grape leaves, thanks to the “pergola” method of growing Montepulciano d’Abruzzo whereby the vines grow across the rows.
Abruzzo is known as the region of “mare e monti”, the mountains and the sea. On clear spring days, you understand very well why: you can see all the way to the highest mountains in Abruzzo, Majella and Gran Sasso. In fact, the Corno Grande (Italian for "great horn"), part of the Gran Sasso massif, is the highest peak of the Italian Peninsula at 2,912 metres.
Early this week, the mountain tops were still covered in snow, but soon that brilliant covering will melt away, giving way to summer.
At the start of this video, you can see the snow-covered Majella and Grand Sasso - all the way from Vasto, across the vineyards.
It’s a rainy day today so I couldn’t go out and take more “notes” in my diary. Instead, I took a moment to share some of this beauty with you. Mare, monti and Montepulciano d’Abruzzo!
Joyful spring regards to you,
Anita
Some say our wines have a special flavor because the grapes grow so close to the sea. You’ll have to test and decide if it’s true! The white protruding structure in the upper left corner is the Punta Penna lighthouse, the second highest in Italy (70m).
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